EXCERPT: "A new Indiana University study that examines the brain activity of alcohol-dependent women compared to women who were not addicted found stark and surprising differences, leading to intriguing questions about brain network functions of addicted women as they make risky decisions about when and what to drink. " more

EXCERPT: "The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) leading a broad-based coalition of health associations, medical schools and women’s advocates call on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold a hearing to examine the progress made by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on including more women and minorities in medical research. In addition, SWHR and the coalition urge greater analysis by these agencies into the ways that diseases and treatments affect women and men differently." more

EXCERPT: "A new Indiana University study that examines the brain activity of alcohol-dependent women compared to women who were not addicted found stark and surprising differences, leading to intriguing questions about brain network functions of addicted women as they make risky decisions about when and what to drink. " more

EXCERPTS: "Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration made an unusual and surprising announcement. It cut the recommended dose of the most popular sleep drug in the country, Ambien, in half for women. It turns out men and women metabolize Ambien, known generically as Zolpidem, very differently, leaving women with more of the drug in their bodies the next morning, and therefore at a greater risk of impaired driving. .... Take aspirin. Low-dose aspirin lowers the risk of heart attacks in healthy men; but in healthy women, turns out it doesn’t though it does protect women against stroke. And drugs are just the beginning. Sex differences have been found in pain receptors, liver enzymes, even the wiring of the brain."

....

Larry Cahill [a neuroscientist at the University of California Irvine]: If you're clumping men and women together in your study and there truly is a sex difference, you're not just harming the women; you're harming the men. You're muddling up the understanding of what's going on, you're muddling up the path to clear treatment, not just for the women, but for the men as well.

The problem, he says, is that the scientific establishment hasn’t caught up with its own discoveries.

Lesley Stahl: If science got Ambien so wrong, does that tell you that we really need to go back and review—

Larry Cahill: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: What? Everything?

Larry Cahill: Pretty much everything, yeah, ‘cause once you see this difference and that difference and that difference and that difference and that difference and you see, "This thing's everywhere," you go, "Wait a minute. So the assumption we're making that it really doesn't matter, sex, is not a valid assumption." It may not matter. It may matter hugely. It may flip your results on their head and you don't know. So what happens is you start to realize, "Wow. The status quo is not OK. The way we're doing business has has to change."

.....

"Lesley Stahl: It sounds like the FDA is being more reactive than aggressive about this.

Dr. Sandra Kweder [deputy director of the FDA’s office of new drugs]: I think we're being very aggressive about bringing the most sophisticated science to new drugs and being aggressive about applying the science where we have reason to believe there is a concern to older drugs.

The FDA told us it is looking at other sleep drugs for possible sex differences, but not mounting an across the board review. As of today, Zolpidem remains the only drug on the market with different recommended doses for men and women."

EXCERPTS: "Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration made an unusual and surprising announcement. It cut the recommended dose of the most popular sleep drug in the country, Ambien, in half for women. It turns out men and women metabolize Ambien, known generically as Zolpidem, very differently, leaving women with more of the drug in their bodies the next morning, and therefore at a greater risk of impaired driving. .... Take aspirin. Low-dose aspirin lowers the risk of heart attacks in healthy men; but in healthy women, turns out it doesn’t though it does protect women against stroke. And drugs are just the beginning. Sex differences have been found in pain receptors, liver enzymes, even the wiring of the brain."

....

Larry Cahill [a neuroscientist at the University of California Irvine]: If you're clumping men and women together in your study and there truly is a sex difference, you're not just harming the women; you're harming the men. You're muddling up the understanding of what's going on, you're muddling up the path to clear treatment, not just for the women, but for the men as well.

The problem, he says, is that the scientific establishment hasn’t caught up with its own discoveries.

Lesley Stahl: If science got Ambien so wrong, does that tell you that we really need to go back and review—

Larry Cahill: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: What? Everything?

Larry Cahill: Pretty much everything, yeah, ‘cause once you see this difference and that difference and that difference and that difference and that difference and you see, "This thing's everywhere," you go, "Wait a minute. So the assumption we're making that it really doesn't matter, sex, is not a valid assumption." It may not matter. It may matter hugely. It may flip your results on their head and you don't know. So what happens is you start to realize, "Wow. The status quo is not OK. The way we're doing business has has to change."

.....

"Lesley Stahl: It sounds like the FDA is being more reactive than aggressive about this.

Dr. Sandra Kweder [deputy director of the FDA’s office of new drugs]: I think we're being very aggressive about bringing the most sophisticated science to new drugs and being aggressive about applying the science where we have reason to believe there is a concern to older drugs.

The FDA told us it is looking at other sleep drugs for possible sex differences, but not mounting an across the board review. As of today, Zolpidem remains the only drug on the market with different recommended doses for men and women." more

EXCERPT: "Research with baboons at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute may help explain why some people who take bone-strengthening drugs like bisphosphonates are at-risk for atypical fractures in the long bones in their legs." more

EXCERPT: "Post-menopausal women whose doctors prescribe hormone replacement therapy for severe hot flashes and other menopause symptoms may want to consider taking low doses of Food and Drug Administration-approved bioidentical forms of estrogen or getting their hormones via a transdermal patch. A new observational study shows bioidentical hormones in transdermal patches may be associated with a lower risk of heart attack and FDA-approved products -- not compounded hormones -- may be associated with a slightly lower risk of stroke compared to synthetic hormones in pill form." more

EXCERPT: "Research from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) suggests that testosterone treatment in hypogonadal (testosterone deficient) men restores normal lipid profiles and may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. These finding currently appear online in the International Journal of Clinical Practice." more